THERE’S nothing worse than seeing a huge chunk of your wages fly out of your account to pay for bills every single month.
But what if I told you that there’s a way you could claw some of your hard-earned cash BACK before the end of the year?
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With the cost of living still squeezing family finances, the last thing anyone wants is to leave cash sitting in the hands of HMRC, their council or another company.
But everything from Council Tax to student finance could mean you are owed a refund.
Plus, there is also a little-known tax break for some married couples and civil partners.
Of course, not everyone will qualify for every refund and the amount you get depends on your circumstances.
You will also need to get your skates on if you want the cash in your account by the end of the year, as refunds can take several weeks to process.
Here are the checks worth making NOW and you could be up to £13,140 better off.
Council Tax – up to £7,000
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If you are in the wrong council tax band, you could be owed money back.
The amount you pay depends on where you live and what band you are in.
The bands range from A to H, with A homes paying the least and H the most.
But many households have been placed in the wrong band, leading them to pay more tax than they need to.
And it has been said that one in 20 homes in the UK or 400,000 people are in a too high council tax band.
If you think you have been overcharged there are a number of steps you can take.
The first starting point is checking what band your neighbours are in. This can be done by visiting the Gov.uk website.
Make sure the property is close in size and valuation to get a fair estimate.
If your neighbour is paying less than you, there might be a claim to be made.
But be warned – this does not always mean you are owed a refund and there’s a catch.
It may be that you are not paying enough and flagging the issue could mean you are moved to a higher band.
But if you think your home is in the wrong council tax band, you’ll need to make a formal challenge.
Contact the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) in England and Wales or the Scottish Assessors Association (SAA) in Scotland to do this.
Gather evidence showing you’re paying more – this could be having addresses of similar properties to yours in a lower band, for example.
If the VOA agrees that your property is in the wrong band, it will contact you to let you know your band will be changed.
It can take up to two months for the VOA to review your case.
One savvy homeowner revealed to MoneySavingExpert (MSE) how bagged a whopping £7,603 refund on his council tax.
Marriage tax allowance – £1,000
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Married couples could be missing out on £252 a year – and it is super quick to sign up.
Those living in wedded bliss are allowed to transfer £1,260 of their personal tax allowance to their husband, wife or civil partner.
To qualify, one partner must earn less than the personal tax allowance – which is currently set at £12,570.
Meanwhile, the other must be a basic rate tax payer earning up to £50,270.
This move adds up to £1,260 to your partner’s personal allowance, which slashes the amount of tax they pay by £252.
You can apply for marriage allowance online by visiting the gov.uk website, and it is free to do so.
You can also backdate payments by up to four years, so you could get more than £1,000 back.
Student loan overpayments – £240 average
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In the last tax year, it’s estimated there were more than one million student loan overpayments.
The average refund for affected borrowers was around £240, according to Student Loans Company figures.
Overpayments can happen when deductions continue after a loan has been fully repaid or an employer uses the wrong repayment plan.
You may also be entitled to money back if repayments were taken during individual high-earning months, but your annual income ultimately fell below the relevant repayment threshold.
Log in to your official student loan repayment account to check your balance and previous deductions.
However, there is an important catch.
If your loan has not been cleared, getting some deductions refunded will usually add that amount back to your outstanding balance.
But while it’s often helpful to overpay on loans to clear your debt faster, this might not be the case for many graduates.
That’s because Government data shows two-thirds of people won’t clear their student loans before it is wiped after 30 years.
For these people, overpaying small amounts won’t reduce what you’ll pay in future so it can be worth getting the money back.
Higher earners who think they will clear the loans in time may gain from overpaying as there’s less time for interest to build up, so they may not want to get their money back.
Reclaiming overpayments should only take minutes and you can do it online here.
Unclaimed energy credit – £500
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Millions of households are sitting on a pile of energy credit totalling £3billion – and you may be entitled to claim some of that cash.
The average customer has accumulated nearly £200 in surplus credit, according to comparison site Uswitch.
It’s normal for customers to build up energy credit during the warmer months, as it helps cover higher energy use during the colder winter months.
This happens because monthly direct debits are usually calculated by your energy company.
They estimate your energy costs for the year and divide the total into 12 equal monthly payments.
However, around 16million households still hold a hidden credit on their energy account despite winter ending.
A survey by Uswitch found that 12% of customers have credit balances exceeding £300 and 4% have more than £500.
Requesting a refund from your supplier is easy.
First, make sure your energy firm has the most up-to-date meter reading.
If your reading doesn’t match the energy use they have recorded for you, chances are they’ll want to update your monthly bills as you may not be paying the right amount anyway.
But if your meter readings are up-to-date and if you’ve been in credit for more than one month, ask your energy firm to return the funds.
Each energy supplier has its own process for customers wishing to get a credit refund.
We’ve previously explained the rules for each energy supplier, so check exactly how you can request a refund.
However, if you don’t need the money now it may be worth leaving it there as a cash buffer when bills are likely to rise again in the winter.
Or, you could request a refund and then put the money in a high interest savings account to make it go further ahead of higher energy costs.
Forgotten subscriptions – £400
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We’ve all felt that sinking feeling after spotting a mystery payment leaving our bank account – only to suddenly remember what it was for.
It’s that subscription you meant to cancel weeks ago.
But before you write off the cash as gone for good, there’s a trick that could see you get every penny back.
Households are needlessly losing out on up to £400 in forgotten subscriptions every year, according to Nationwide.
But most Brits don’t realise there’s a simple way to claim a refund.
Jez Samuel, mobiles expert at Uswitch told The Sun exactly how you can do it – and how it could save you a small fortune.
If you’re an Apple user, head straight to reportaproblem.apple.com and sign in.
Simply choose “Request a refund”, pick your reason and select the charge, then hit submit.
There’s no official deadline for claiming – but Jez warns you shouldn’t drag your feet.
And the good news is that Apple usually gets back to you within 24 to 48 hours.
Android users aren’t left out either, but they will have to work to a tighter deadline.
Tap your profile, head to “Payments & subscriptions”, find the unwanted charge and hit “Report a problem”.
If the app store knocks you back, don’t give up just yet.
Jez suggests getting in touch with your bank and asking about a chargeback.
Chargeback is a debit card protection that can help you reclaim your cash if things go wrong, for example if you don’t get your order or if an item is faulty.
However, it is likely to only work if you are wrongly charged by the company after you have cancelled the subscription.
Emergency pension tax – £4,000
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Thousands of pension savers were given tax refunds in the space of just three months, HMRC figures revealed.
More than £50million was paid back to around 12,500 people who were overtaxed when taking out their retirement savings.
The figures are based on those who made flexible pension withdrawals between April and June this year.
Each person was paid back almost £4,000 on average.
Retirees are usually overcharged tax because emergency tax codes are often applied when they first access their pension flexibly.
That can mean the amount of tax owed is calculated incorrectly, as it’s not based on the person’s actual income.
If you’ve withdrawn a large amount from your pension pot, you need to fill in a form to get your cash back as quickly as possible.
You can wait for HMRC to review your tax code at the end of the tax year and it will process a refund, but obviously this means you could be waiting a while.
To get the cash back faster, you can fill in one of three forms: a P55, P53Z or a P50Z which can all be found on the Government’s website.
Which form you need to fill out will depend on how you have accessed your retirement pot:
- If you’ve emptied your pot by flexibly accessing your pension and are still working or receiving benefits, you should fill out form P53Z,
- If you’ve emptied your pot by flexibly accessing your pension and aren’t working or receiving benefits, you should fill out form P50Z,
- If you’ve only flexibly accessed part of your pension pot then use form P55.
HMRC says it aims to process refunds within 30 days.
To avoid having emergency tax deducted in future, try taking smaller amounts out rather than one lump sum.